Before the development of Mass Effect 2 ever began, BioWare apparently looked to expand the franchise’s universe in a very new and interesting manner. Over a decade ago in 2008, the studio briefly had a game concept put together for a Mass Effect spin-off where players would control a character that was meant to mirror that of Han Solo from Star Wars.
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This information has come about in a new interview from The Gamer where former BioWare employee Dorian Kieken talked about the project. “We explored a game concept back in 2008, a bit after the shipping of [the first] ME, where you were playing a Han Solo type of character in a Star Control-inspired game in the Mass Effect universe,” Kieken explained of the game. He went on to say that this title wasn’t meant to supplant the mainline Mass Effect trilogy and was instead just supposed to expand the universe a bit more.
Kieken said that the reason he specifically liked the idea quite a bit was because it would have allowed the studio to play around with a character that didn’t fall too far to one side of the moral compass. “I like the idea of exploring a ‘grayer’ character, akin to a smuggler/pirate type in the Mass Effect universe. It also allows you to see the world from a different point of view than the one of the chosen super-soldier. It’s a bit like exploring the Star Wars universe without being a Jedi, or the Warhammer 40k universe without being a Space Marine,” he said of the title.
Unfortunately, this Han Solo-like Mass Effect game never saw the light of day, primarily because of Mass Effect 2. “We all needed to focus on Mass Effect 2, which was the right call at the time,” Kieken said of the reason for canceling the project. “I think the concept was really strong, though, and I would definitely like to see a game like that one day.”
Given how well Mass Effect 2 turned out, it’s hard to be upset that BioWare ended up canning this Han Solo style game. Still, it would have been an incredibly interesting spin-off to see come about. Perhaps, as Kieken suggests, maybe one day we’ll see BioWare return to work on a game of this ilk. Until that time, the remastered collection of the trilogy, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, is slated to launch later this year on May 14th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
So do you wish that this canceled Mass Effect game would have seen the light of day? Let me know what you think either down in the comments or over on Twitter at @MooreMan12.
